Oddball
by Deviously Deviant
Summary: In short, some of my AvP fan-characters playing a nice game of Oddball from Halo.
1. Chapter 1

Epi pressed herself against the thick, mossy trunk of a tree, holding her breath. Cradled in her clawed hand was a polished skull, which she held close to her as she waited.

On the other side of the tree, Torik growled to himself as he swung his head back and forth, letting his good eye get a good look at his surroundings. He knew the skull had to be around her somewhere....unless....

"Ha!" He snarled, swinging around the tree and tackling Epi, grabbing at the skull as she twisted away, her smaller form easily slipping through his arms. Laughing derisively, she turned and tore off through the trees, leaving Torik behind.

But she hadn't gone far before she found herself confronted with a very different, and far more challenging, opponent. In mid-stride, she felt her muscles seize up, and fell forward with a shocked snarl. But just before she hit the ground, she was frozen once more, hovering just a few inches above the dirt, her dreadlocks brushing the twigs and other debris that littered the forest floor.

Looking up, she cursed as Frost stepped forward, a somewhat smug smile on her face as she held out a clawed hand, saying, "Dear Epitaph, I told you that you would be sorry you let me play this game." Her fingers twitched slightly, and Epi felt her hand loosen, releasing the skull, which floated through the air and landed in the albino female's claws.

"Curse that power of yours, Frost." Epi growled, grinning as her friend waved a hand and released her hold over her younger leader and disappeared into the trees, melting out of sight despite her unnaturally pale skin. As Epi picked herself up, she heard Frost's echoing roar that announced to the others that she was now the holder of the skull.

That was when Torik made another appearance, scowling as he walked over to his mate, saying, "Great. Just as I find you again, she has to go and ruin my fun."

"So go after her. She's got the skull now." Epi remarked playfully as Torik rumbled unhappily, draping an arm around her shoulders.

"Are you kidding? I'm a lot bigger than you are, Epi, and Frost doesn't like me as much. I don't know exactly how strong that brain of hers is, but I don't want to risk her deciding to just let me crash." He grinned at her jaggedly, rubbing the scars that slanted over his blind left eye. "Come on, let's go see if someone actually manages to get that thing away from her."


	2. Chapter 2

Frost settled herself calmly on a branch that was nearly as wide as she was tall, deciding that she was safe enough to have a little time to meditate. This game wasn't so hard, she thought as she looked at the skull that sat in her palm, her black claws lightly scratching its surface. Her red eyes closed as she settled herself in to rest, and wait.

It wasn't long before her patience paid off, in the form of another player standing on the end of her branch.

"Rok? I'm surprised. I thought it would be Raik to find me first." She stood smoothly and tossed the skull up and down a few times, her eyes slitted in a challenging glare, trying to provoke the younger, and somewhat smaller male to make the first move.

Rok's yellow eyes glared out at her skeptically, knowing that if he tried to attack her directly, he would suffer a quick paralysis, and would most likely end up falling to the ground, which was a fair distance away.

"Well? What's the matter, Rok'aan?" Her tone became the low, mocking voice that she enjoyed using to provoke her opponents. While she and Rok were good friends outside of this game, right now they were against each other. But one of them possessed powerful psychokinesis, and the other only his claws and wits.

"Nothing at all, Frost. Just wondering how to tell you that Raik is here, as a matter of fact, and happens to be creeping up on you from above."

The trick worked. Frost's head snapped back, looking to see if, indeed, she had made a mistake, and Rok took his chance to dive forward, snatching at the skull and managing to pull it loose from her hand before he fell, dragging one hand against the trunk of the tree to stabilize himself while Frost, realizing that he had tricked her, lunged after him.

Rok felt his muscles start to stiffen, but thanked the gods that Frost had always had a hard time controlling him with her power as he darted along, letting out a deep roar to announce that the skull had changed hands.

Frost growled irritably as Rok leaped ahead of her. Picking up the pace, she easily started to overtake him, especially since she was doing her utmost to slow him down. But even though she was older, a bit bigger, and had more experience than him, Rok was not going to be easy to take down. Twisting aside as Frost's claws slashed past him, he tripped her and changed direction. Regaining her balance quickly, Frost turned to follow, but suddenly found herself face to face with Torik, who was scowling as he whined, "That's the second time I've come so close to getting it, only to have someone else take it. And now he's given both of us the slip."

Frost glowered at the male as he turned and stomped off. He made it sound like it was her own fault she'd gotten the skull taken away. Well, maybe it was, but that was hardly the point. Tilting her head back, she followed her instincts off into the forest, reluctantly accepting the fact that this game was harder than it seemed.


	3. Chapter 3

Grinning to himself, Rok tossed the skull from hand to hand as he made his way through the forest. So far, he was in the lead, if the timer on his wrist computer was correct. He looked at the times by each of the other player's names, and let out a happy series of clicks to see that he was, indeed, ahead of the rest. Not by much, but so far, he had eluded confrontation.

Until something dropped down on him from above, pinning him and plucking the skull from his hand, grinning with the bizarre combination of Yautja mandibles and Xenomorph mouth.

"Raik!" He gasped, swinging a punch at the hybrid's head, but the large creature easily leaped back, purposely pushing off from Rok's stomach and making the smaller male curl up in pain, wheezing.

Waving his tail mockingly, Raik hissed, "Got a little over-confident, didn't you? Especially after pulling that trick on Frost." He lifted the skull so the light that streamed through the trees would play across it, and added, "Your sister got this from me in the beginning because I got over-confident, Rok. You would do well to remain humble." With that, he turned and started to race off, but Rok's hand suddenly closed around the end of his tail, jerking him back.

Twisting the big hybrid to the ground, Rok snatched at the skull again, snarling. But Raik was built with the serpentine agility of his Xenomorph side, and Rok soon found himself tasting the dirt as his friend coiled around him and threw him back down, laughing as he jumped back, "So, you're going to contest me for this? Very well."

Rok grinned evilly as he threw himself at Raik, but then pulled back and changed course as soon as the hybrid's balance had shifted to anticipate the attack, and he grabbed the skull from Raik's outstretched hand, drawing an angry hiss from the hybrid before the side of Raik's tail smashed into his stomach, driving the air from his lungs. He felt the hybrid's claws scrape his palm as the skull once again was taken, but as he picked himself up to try and get it back, there was a flash of movement and Dax had suddenly appeared, tackling Raik and snarling as he snatched at the skull. Rok scrambled to his feet, careful to avoid the thrashing tails and claws as he tried to figure out a way to work this situation to his advantage. But that was when he heard a footstep behind him, and easily dodged the punch that Mara sent his way.

Catching her hand as she tried to hit him again, Rok laughed, "You've never been able to sneak up on me, Mara. We both know that!"

Grinning back at him, the girl twisted aside, her pink-and-purple streaked hair hanging in her eyes somewhat as she said, "Who says I was trying to? All I wanted was to distract you!"

As if on cue, there was a snarl of frustration from Raik, and then a distant shriek from Dax, who had apparently managed to escape with the skull. Rok growled and snatched at Mara, but she quickly ducked aside and hurried off, letting out a howl of delight as Dax shrieked again.

Rok and Raik regarded each other sullenly for a few moments, but then broke into fits of laughter as they heard Torik's booming voice shout, "DAMMIT!" from nearby, and heard him rustling away through the bushes after his new quarry.

"Has he gotten the skull at all, yet?" Raik asked as he cracked his back loudly, while Rok started off into the trees.

"Not as far as I know. He didn't even manage to take it from Epi, before Frost came in."

Raik hissed in amusement, giving a quick wave of dismissal as the two of them split off into the forest to track down the skull again.


	4. Chapter 4

"Nice job, pal." Mara said, laughing as she took the skull from Dax, looking it over carefully as they settled themselves on the riverbank, taking a brief rest from their manic running. Dax stretched out next to her, hissing and grinning his Xenomorph smile, which was rather unsettling, if you weren't used to it.

Idly rolling the skull around in her hands, Mara looked around, listening carefully as she said, "Well, it seems like we haven't been spotted yet, at least. I think everyone's had a chance with the skull yet, except for—"

"Me?" The deep, gravelly voice was so close to her ear that Mara nearly jumped into the river, whirling to face the heavily scarred male Yautja who had crept up behind her perfectly silently, so that even Dax had been totally unaware of his presence.

"How did you do that?" She asked incredulously as Dax twisted around her, hissing at Drevikk as he grinned at them both, his bright blue eyes, which matched Mara's perfectly, glittering with the reflection of the water behind them.

"Lots and lots of experience and practice. Now, I believe you're going to hand that skull over."

Shaking her head, Mara held the skull behind her back as she growled at him, "You're gonna have to take it from me. That's the rules."

Tilting his head, Drevikk took a step forward and laughed, "I think you're cheating a little bit here, with Dax working with you. Perhaps he should've stayed back at the village." He took another step, circling them so that their backs would be to the trees, instead of the water.

That was when Mara and Dax both bolted, in opposite directions. Drevikk, seeing that Mara had discreetly passed the skull to her Xeno companion, decided to humor her obvious plan, and pursued her instead.

Mara glanced over her shoulder, grinning to herself as she saw that Drevikk was chasing her instead of Dax, but her excitement was short-lived as she suddenly found herself tripping over something that had been strung across the gap between two trees.

"Hey! No weapons or gear, Drevikk!" She snarled as he crouched over her, laughing.

"I didn't use any; that was a vine. Just because I'm resourceful doesn't make me a cheater." He glanced up and gestured over at the sight of Dax hanging upside down, growling to himself as he hung there, caught in a clever snare that Drevikk had set up, as if he had predicted their every move. The skull, which sat on the ground beneath the grumbling Xeno, was soon scooped up by Drevikk, who turned around and looked at Mara for a moment before saying, "You really should have just given it to me. That way, we could have avoided this whole embarrassing moment."

"Just because you're my dad doesn't mean I'm going to just hand over the prize." She said, smiling as he ruffled her hair fondly, before walking off and leaving her to disentangle herself and her friend from the vines, listening to the deep roar that announced who was now carrying the skull.

Just as she was beginning to work on freeing Dax, Rok and Torik appeared, scowling and complaining to themselves.

"Hey guys. Drevikk got the sku—"

"I know!" Torik barked as he continued walking, stomping off into the forest again, leaving a very confused Mara and Dax with Rok, who started helping with getting the Xeno down from his predicament.

"What's his deal?" Mara asked as Dax finally fell to the ground in a heap, growling plaintively.

Rok shrugged. "He's frustrated that he hasn't managed to get the skull. He always seems to be just a little too late."

"Oh." She smirked as she looked off in the direction Torik had gone. "Maybe he'll get it this time."

"Let's not get his hopes up, Mara."


	5. Chapter 5

Torik scowled as he made his way carefully through the trees, rubbing his blind eye occasionally out of nervous habit. Checking his wrist computer, he growled in frustration as he saw that the game was almost over, and he had no time with the skull, while everyone else had at least ten minutes, with Rok having the most with nearly fifteen. Drevikk was catching up to him, though.

Clicking irritably, he continued to follow the scent of the older male, hoping that he would find Drevikk before someone else managed to get the skull. That had been happening way too often today.

He nearly swore out loud when he finally found Drevikk, locked in combat with Frost, who had apparently decided to not use her psychokinesis to her advantage, and was preferring to fight him hand-to-hand. Torik crouched, deciding that it would be better, and more entertaining, to wait and see who would come out on top in this fight. Drevikk and Frost knew each other quite well, so well, in fact, that it was nearly impossible for one of them to get worn out before the other. Drevikk was struggling to hold Frost back, while she clawed at he skull, managing to pin Drevikk's arm behind him, slamming his chest into a tree.

But just as she managed to wrest the skull from her friend's grasp, Drevikk turned the tables and threw her back, leaping up into the branches of the tree he'd previously been held against. Snarling, Frost followed, and they began a complicated series of maneuvers that looked almost like a dance, though it was really just a way of fighting while avoiding falling and crashing to the ground.

Finally, it seemed that Frost was being forced to give up, as Raik suddenly appeared, hissing and lunged into the branches, obviously trying to grab Drevikk, but misjudging the other male's movement, he missed and both he and Frost fell. Luckily, Raik twisted around to break their fall, allowing Frost's weight to fall upon him, rather than the forest floor.

Drevikk, meanwhile, had been making his escape, with Torik in hot pursuit, knowing that his time to catch the skull would be here at last.

But they hadn't gone far before Drevikk turned and hissed, "You were waiting to pick off whoever came out of that fight as the winner, weren't you?"

"I take what I can get." Torik grinned as he cracked his knuckles, challenging the older male with a flash of his eyes.

"Then come get it." Drevikk tossed the skull into the air, snatching it back just as Torik lunged for it, and then delivering a sharp blow to his side which made the bigger male stumble, gasping.

But he was back up in a flash, tackling Drevikk and pinning him easily, a glance at his wrist computer showing that Drevikk's time had paused, and there were only five minutes left in the game.

Drevikk twisted, shoving Torik back for a moment before he himself got back up and turned to run, only to trip over one of his own traps, which he had set up all over the place.

As the vine wrapped around his legs, dragging him into the air with a furious shout, Torik dove forward and grabbed the skull, about to let out a victorious shout—

When Frost suddenly punched him in the back of the head, plucking the skull from his hands and tearing off into the woods, laughing.

Dazed, Torik slumped to the ground, clutching his throbbing head and glaring at Drevikk, who was laughing heartily at him. When the game was up, the final winner was Frost, who had beaten Rok's time by only a few seconds. Dragging himself to his feet, Torik waited for Drevikk to get himself out of his trap, which he did rather quickly, before slouching off toward home sulkily. He still hadn't gotten any time with the skull.


End file.
